


The Art of Being Clumsy

by the_chaotic_lesbian (orphan_account)



Series: The Art of Being Mike Wheeler [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: "oh my god Mike", Clumsiness, Fluff, Gen, Party relationships, Platonic Relationships, except he also hates them so, hinted mileven, mike wheeler is clumsy, mike wheeler loves his friends, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 21:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21204137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/the_chaotic_lesbian
Summary: It is pretty common knowledge - to the party, at least - that Michael Wheeler has two left feet when it comes to literally everything. Walking, running, dancing… He has no coordination whatsoever, and he knows it, though he’ll never admit it out loud.~~~~~~~~~Or, Mike Wheeler is the clumsiest human alive, and his friends never hesitate to remind him of it.





	The Art of Being Clumsy

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, this is like 60% based off discord convos. You don't have to read the first part to understand this, although there's a reference to it here and there. Enjoy!

It is pretty common knowledge - to the party, at least - that Michael Wheeler has two left feet when it comes to literally everything. Walking, running, dancing… He has no coordination whatsoever, and he knows it, though he’ll never admit it out loud. 

The dry erase board, still proudly boasting tallies, now has a fifth column with the letters MW at the top. His friends hate him, Mike swears they do. 

One day, Mike - raving about his newest campaign, hands flying in the air excitedly as he takes step after step backwards - steps back into his couch. Not just any part of the couch, either. No, his heel hits the very edge of the couch, knocking against the wooden peg, and he falls backwards against the arm of the couch - which,  _ ow,  _ that hurts - and then loses his balance completely His eyes must close, because one minute he’s falling and the next he’s sprawled on the floor, body aching painfully. 

He can  _ feel  _ all four pairs of eyes on him, blinking in amusement, and then the room echoes with laughter and Mike just groans. 

“Are… are you okay, Mike?” Will appears in his narrow line of vision, extending a hand to him. He sounds like he’s on the verge of laughing, his hazel eyes sparkling with amusement, and Mike groans again. 

“No,” he proclaims dramatically, flopping back against the floor and closing his eyes, “I’ve died. I’m gonna be a ghost now, forever haunting this basement. You guys murdered me. Tell Holly that I love her.” 

“Oh my  _ God,  _ Mike,” Lucas groans from somewhere across the basement. With his eyes closed, Mike can’t tell. 

“We didn’t murder you,” Dustin points out from somewhere else in the basement, “pretty sure you did this to yourself Mike.” 

“So, wouldn’t that be considered suicide?” Max wonders aloud. 

Mike just gives another exaggerated groan, throwing an arm over his eyes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At school, it’s pretty commonplace for someone - Will or Lucas, normally - to grab his shirt and yank him in certain directions to avoid doors and poles and the like. 

Mike can’t help it. He gets so invested in his stories, he forgets to watch where he’s walking, which… is not a good thing but does he care? No. No, he does not. 

(A small part of him wonders if it’s this habit, Will grabbing his arm to direct him, that earns his friend all the harsh names and insults he gets called on a daily basis. He pushes that part of him away, because… well, he’d feel far too guilty for that.) 

Mike does think it’s silly that his friends feel as if he can’t be trusted to look after himself. After all, he’s a  _ teenager  _ he doesn’t need his friends to baby him. 

He’s proven wrong. 

It’s a Friday afternoon, and the last bell had just rang, and Mike can’t  _ wait  _ to get home. A new episode of Knight Rider is airing, and he’s so excited, and he just wants to bike home as fast as he can and so when the bell rings, he jumps out of his seat and sprints towards the exit. He can hear the protests of his friends, who did not have the fortunate seating of right next to the door, but he ignores it. He can bike home without them just this once, right? Or, even, he’ll just get to his bike first and wait! 

In a flurry of movement, he darts down the hallways, backpack haphazardly slung around his shoulders. He’s almost there, he’s almost  _ there- _

CRASH. 

Mike hits the pole with his shoulder, and  _ fuck  _ it hurts. He had been so close, too, he’s literally at the exit doors, but he hadn’t dodged quickly enough and now his shoulder is throbbing and wait is  _ the pole tilting-  _

(He knows, somewhere in the back of his mind, that the poles between double doors are detachable for when large objects need to be transferred into the building.) 

The pole falls, and it lands directly on his shoulder, and everybody is staring as Mike gasps in pain. 

His friends find him standing there, shell-shocked, cradling his right shoulder staring at the fallen pole in disbelief. It hurts so badly, and he can’t move his right arm, and how’s he gonna get home now? 

“...oh my  _ God,  _ Mike,” Dustin facepalms, and Lucas and Max both look on the verge of laughter, while Will just looks concerned. If they weren’t at school, Mike thinks he’d be tearing up. 

The party ends up walking him home, despite his protests. Lucas is the lucky one to manage two bikes, and Mike complains the entire way home. His friends roll their eyes, but they were the ones to insist on walking with him, so really it’s their fault. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They’re outside on a summer day, enjoying the weather, when Lucas issues the challenge. 

“Hey Mike,” he says, a mischievous grin on his face, “Bet you can’t climb any one of these trees.” 

Mike scoffs at the challenge. Just because he’s… well, tall, and lanky, and ridiculously clumsy, doesn’t mean he can’t climb! Especially out here, in the woods behind the Byers house, where he’s pretty familiar with all the trees. He expresses this opinion to his friend, but Lucas just laughs. “So prove it.” 

And he does. Mike picks out a tree - one that’s low enough for him to climb up onto, with thick branches he can hold onto, because he knows how to climb a tree, really, he does - and he begins his climb, pulling himself up branch by branch. 

It’s working, and he feels elated at the thought of finally one-upping Lucas, when he feels something snag. Seconds later, and he stops completely because  _ ouch that’s his hair.  _

He’s sitting on a branch, his hands drop to his side, and he winces in pain. “Uh… guys?” 

Four pairs of eyes stare up at him, and then they all start laughing. 

“Oh my God, Mike!” Max is cackling, doubled over. He pouts down at her. “I knew your hair was ridiculous but not this ridiculous!” 

“Yes, haha, it’s very funny,” he winces as another branch snags, “but also it hurts so can you please find some way to get them out?” 

“I’ll go get some clippers from my house,” Will says, and even he’s grinning. Mike feels betrayed. 

They all disappear, leaving him totally alone stuck in the tree. Wow, some friends he has. He sighs, tries to get comfortable. 

(He drifts off against the branches, only to be jolted out of his slumber when he hears them laughing. Will is holding the clippers, which he passes off to Lucas to climb up with. Clipping off all the branches is a Herculean effort, but for once Lucas isn’t teasing him.) 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There’s lots of little things too. 

He had the grand plan to straighten his hair one day. Mike had everything all planned out too - he was gonna sneak into the bathroom early in the morning before Nancy could get to it, snag her flat iron, and run it through his curls like he sees Nancy do  _ all the time.  _ It can’t be that hard, right? 

It starts out well enough. He plugs the contraption in, waits for it to warm up, and holds it to his hair. He manages to comb through one section of his hair before something  _ hot hot hot  _ touches his ear, and he yelps and drops the thing. It clatters onto the sink, and Mike presses his hand against the tiny burn on his ear with a wince. Harder than it looks. Okay. He goes to pick the flat iron back up, but he accidentally grabs it around the iron part and he screams in pain. 

His mom ends up straightening the rest for him, after both she and Nancy had woken to his pain-filled shrieks. His hand all bandaged up, his hair flattened completely, he goes to school like that. His friends give him the weirdest looks. 

He’s run into his fair share of doors too. Mike doesn’t know how he doesn’t have a permanent concussion with how often he slams face-first into doors. He keeps this to himself, though - his friends tease him enough. 

Tripping over his own feet is common as well. Once, he had been hanging out with El after school. It’s early March, and he just aced a test, and he’s  _ excited  _ okay, it isn’t his fault! 

He had all but slammed the door into the wall, causing El to jump from her position on her bed with a book in her lap. “El!” He exclaims, because the last time he saw her he had been worrying himself sick over this test but he  _ aced it  _ he actually did well! “Guess what?” 

She opens her mouth, her expression morphing to startled surprise to amused curiosity, to say something, but the words don’t come out. In his desperate frenzy to reach her, his feet come loose from under him, and he tumbles to the ground, hitting his head against the bedframe with a pained groan. 

“Mike?” And El is peering at him upside down, her head hanging off the bed to look at him. She’s obviously trying not to laugh, and Mike groans again, resigned.

(His mom threatens to make him buy new sets of cups after he drops one. It had slipped right out of his hands, hitting the ground with a thump and a crack, and Mike had just watched it fall, frozen. He had apologized endlessly.) 

(His friends know that he’s just  _ clumsy _ because he’s excited. He knows that they appreciate it - “it’s a part of what makes you so… so  _ Mike, _ ” Will had explained once, a shy smile on his face.) 

(Mike doesn’t mind being clumsy if it means making them laugh.)

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to mention that the second one is 100% based on a true story of something I did. Actually, all of these are based on things I do. I'm clumsy y'all. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed! Please tell me what you think!


End file.
